Schengen Area
The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, exchange students or for business purposes (anyone legally present in the EU). Free movement of persons enables every EU citizen to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. Schengen underpins this freedom by enabling citizens to move around the Schengen Area without being subject to border checks.
Schengen Information System (SIS)
As part of the strengthening of the cooperation in combating cross-border crime, illegal immigration, etc., the members of the Schengen cooperation have developed the Schengen Information System (SIS).
The SIS compensates for the abolition of internal border controls and contributes to the fight against cross-border crime and illegal immigration. SIS gives the Danish police, immigration and customs authorities access to alerts from the other Schengen countries.
SIS is an IT system (consisting of both a central and a national system) that allows national border guards, customs officers and police authorities to circulate alerts on wanted or missing persons or stolen vehicles and documents.
The information reported by the national authorities concerns:
- persons with an arrest warrant or extradition request;
- unwanted foreigners refused entry;
- foreign nationals who are subject to a return decision;
- missing persons;
- witnesses or persons summoned to assist with a judicial procedure;
- persons or objects to be monitored or controlled;
- objects for seizure or use as evidence in criminal procedures;
It is the national authorities that enter, search and exchange information in SIS. The Danish National Police is generally responsible for the Danish part of the SIS, cf. Section 2(2) of the Act on Denmark’s Accession to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement. In this connection, the Danish National Police undertake the function of SIRENE Bureau. However, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration with underlying agencies has the task of reporting unwanted aliens who are refused entry and aliens who are the subject of a return decision, as well as seeking and exchanging information relating to these alerts.
All alerts and information searches must be carried out in accordance with national law and with a number of international rules on data and personal data protection.
Your rights
If you are registered in SIS, you have certain rights. You generally have the right to know whether data about you has been entered in the SIS, as well as the right to access personal data about you. You also have the right to have factually incorrect data corrected and you can request erasure of unlawfully registered data.
You must contact the authority that has dealt with the case underlying your registration in SIS.
If you want to request access to data about you that has been registered in SIS, please contact the Danish National Police using the relevant form available on their website.
If you wish to have access to the data about you in SIS or if you believe that the data is factually incorrect or incomplete, or if you wish that the data is erased from SIS, you can contact the authority responsible for your registration in SIS.
If you wish to exercise your right to access to data, please contact The Danish National Police using the relevant form available here.
If you wish to exercise your right to rectification or erasure, please contact the authority responsible for your registration in SIS. See below for contact information for the relevant authority:
Supervision
The Danish Data Protection Agency is the national supervisory authority in relation to processing of personal data in the Danish part of the Schengen Information System. This supervisory role mainly entails inspections and handling complaints from persons registered in SIS.
Complaints
If you are dissatisfied with a decision made by any of the authorities mentioned above concerning your request to access, rectification or erasur of data about you in the SIS, you can submit a complaint to the Danish Data Protection Agency. You also have the possibility to search effective remedy by submitting a case to the Danish courts against the authority responsible for the decision.
If you wish to file a complaint to the Danish Data Protection Agency, please provide the following information:
- a description of the nature of your complaint
- a copy of the decision or response that you received from the authority
- any other material that you think is relevant to your complaint
You can access our complaint form here.
If you are dissatisfied with the Danish DPA’s decision you may bring the matter before the Danish courts.
More information
You can read more about the Schengen Information System on the following websites:
Relevant legislation:
Regulation (EU) 2018/1860 on the use of the Schengen Information System for the return of illegally staying third-country nationals.
Regulation (EU) 2018/1861 on the establishment, operation and use of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the field of border checks.
Regulation (EU) 2018/1862 on the establishment, operation and use of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.